Genesis 18:9

After they had eaten, "they inquired about Sarah." She, who even in her old age had preserved her modesty, came out from inside the tent to the door of the tent. From Abraham's haste and from the silence that Abraham imposed on everyone with his gestures, those of his household knew that these who, because of the man of God, allowed their feet to be washed like men were not men.

"Then [God] said of Sarah, 'At this time I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son.' " But Sarah, even though Abraham was standing behind her to strengthen her, "laughed and said, 'After I have grown old shall I [again] have youthfulness? My husband is also old.' " A sign would have been given her if she had asked to hear or to see and then believe: first, because she was a woman, old and barren; and second, because nothing like this had ever been done before. God then gave a sign specifically to her who had not asked for a sign, and said, "Why did you laugh, Sarah, and say, 'Am I, who am old, to bear a child?' " But Sarah, instead of accepting the sign that was given to her, persisted, by this falsehood, in denying the true sign that had been given to her. Even though she had denied it because she was afraid, nevertheless in order to make her know that a false excuse did not convince him, God said to her, "But you did laugh in your heart; lo, even your heart is denying the foolishness of your tongue."

What then does the Lord say to Abraham? "Where is," he says, "Sarah your wife? And he: behold, he says, in the tent. And the Lord said: coming I will come to you in season according to this time, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. But Sarah was listening, standing behind the door of the tent, behind Abraham." Let women learn by the examples of the patriarchs, let women, I say, learn to follow their husbands. For it is not without cause written that "Sarah was standing behind Abraham," but so that it might be shown that if the husband goes before to the Lord, the wife ought to follow. What I say, that the wife ought to follow, is in this: if she sees her husband standing before God. Otherwise let us ascend to a higher grade of understanding and let us say that the husband in us is the rational sense, and the wife, who is joined to it as to a husband, is our flesh. Let the flesh therefore always follow the rational sense, nor let it ever come to such sloth that the rational sense, brought into subjection, obeys the flesh flowing loose in luxury and pleasures. "Sarah" therefore "was standing behind Abraham." But we can also perceive something mystical in this passage, if we see how in Exodus "God went before in a pillar of fire by night and in a pillar of cloud by day," and the synagogue of the Lord followed after him. Thus therefore I understand that Sarah too followed, or stood, "behind Abraham." What is said after these things? "And they were both," it says, "elders"—that is, old—"and advanced in their days." As far as pertains to the age of the body, many before them had led a life of more numerous years, yet none was called an elder. Whence it seems that this name is ascribed to the saints not by reason of longevity, but of maturity.